Thursday, December 18, 2014

Although his advice comes from an academic perspective, Matt Might explicitly
and successfully writes for a general audience on the subject of balancing professional
and personal obligations (a.k.a. "work-life balance"). His conclusion is as
follows:

Continuously adapt

Realize you won't
always strike the right balance.

You will make mistakes.

That's okay.

Listen to your partner and if they're not
satisfied, take action. Move the boundaries; change your habits; or reduce your
workload.

Recognize that achieving work-life balance is a
never-ending process.

Don't treat the balance in "work-life
balance" like a noun.

Treat it like a verb.

This last line caused me to think of a tightrope walker using a balance beam by
continously making needed changes to its position. In addition to being memorable, this image fits quite well
with Might's advice, which not only stresses that continual adjustments are
crucial, but also how to make them. His tips on boundary-setting are exemplary:

Avoid over-commitment

It takes a few
minutes to entangle yourself in commitments that can take years to unwind.

Learn when and how to say "no."

If you're over-committed,
say, "I'd really like to take on that task/role, but I'm concerned that with my
current commitments, I might not be able to perform the this task to the high
standards to which I hold myself."

Experience has shown me the value of not becoming over-committed. In addition
to it being difficult to extricate oneself from some of the excess obligations,
it potentially makes one look bad. Many of the people who already know how to
avoid doing this don't necessarily appreciate that some people have difficulty
learning that skill.

2 comments:

True, and as part of experimentation, there's being open to serendipity. (As an example, my playing around with a new way to organize things may have solved a long-standing blogging problem for me: inflexible editors that are also at the mercy of proprietary caprice.)